11 Unconventional Reasons to Motivate Your Writing

Does writing come natural to you or do you make clichéd excuses and watered-down reasons why you’re not doing it everyday?

For this post, let’s throw your writing a curveball. Here are some not-so-typical reasons why it’s worth the daily discipline and persistence:

  1. Producing feels better than consuming. Writing is an act of production, and while it’s not as easy to do, it certainly feels more rewarding to give than to take. Be a word philanthropist!
  2. Words command attention. Do it good and the world will listen to you. Do it right and they will act.
  3. Teach yourself something new everyday. Unlike “ordinary” thinking, writing actually connects the disparate ideas in your head into something concrete, useful, portable and public. [Read more...]

Success in Life is like Spawning Salmon

Anyone who has fished salmon runs in a river (that would be me in Alaska) can really appreciate the meaning of intense dedication to a life goal.

You see, millions of salmon enter the river to spawn, but very few make it. Before they even get to the river, they have to evade natural predators like whales, sharks, seals and commercial fisherman. If they get past that they then have to deals with set-netters, gill-netters, dip netters, line fishermen and bears — all while swimming upstream against strong currents.

All the salmon I ever caught got my complete respect. They were on a one-track mission to get to the lake, and I had abruptly ended their life’s journey so I could feed my family.

[Read more...]